WhatsApp reactions start rolling out, bigger file size, expanded group limit coming soon

WhatsApp has started rolling out emoji reactions to all its users a move to counter the likes of Telegram, Apple's iMessage, and Slack, and similar to WhatsApp's sister platform Instagram. 

The ability to react to both individual and group chats on the app using emojis was announced last month and has been in testing for some time. 

Alongside reactions, WhatsApp is increasing the size limit of sharing files to up to 2GB from the existing 100MB allocation. 

The instant messaging app owned by Meta is also gradually expanding the group size limit to 512 members up from 256.

Emoji reactions are available on the latest version of WhatsApp, the messaging app said in a blog post. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg teased the roll out of reactions via an Instagram story on Thursday.

The purpose of reactions is to help people quickly express their feelings and emotions about particular messages they receive from individuals and in group chats, without requiring them to send responses in text.